Great Life Mentoring
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 872058987
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Florence, OR, USA
- Phone
- 9714217733
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Adult, Child Matching Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $465,403
- Expenses
- $471,474
- Assets
- $379,450
- Liabilities
- $16,718
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Elizabeth Higley (Executive Director)
- Emily Dunbar (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Elizabeth Higley (Executive Director): $98,823 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Great Life Mentoring cultivates meaningful relationships where children facing adversity-and the adults who mentor them-live happier, healthier lives.
What it reported doing in 2025
In 2025, Great Life Mentoring (GLM) provided services to youth in the Portland, Oregon and Clark County, Washington, areas while celebrating 25 years of its unique mentoring model that improves the mental health conditions of youth from low-resource families. The organization partnered with local mental health organizations and schools to serve fifty-nine youth with trained and supported community volunteers who provide weekly mentoring for a minimum of one year. GLM continued its partnership with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), which is conducting a randomized controlled research study, The Study of Mental Health And Relationships (SMART), to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring relationships provided through GLM. The goal is to promote the resilience and well-being of youth experiencing mental health challenges. Study details are available on Clinicaltrials.gov. GLM completed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative to ensure the organization's practices and strategies effectively reflect and respond to the needs of the diverse population it serves.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 63% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 71
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 31
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.9%; rating input score 74
- Program expense ratio: 72.4%; rating input score 72
- Fundraising efficiency: $21.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -1.3%; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.8; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 21%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 73.9% of revenue deployed · 72.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $341K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $99K · 6 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 24 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 4 filing years from 2022 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 32/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 35/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.